Apple Testing Offline Voice Dictation for iOS?

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Posted July 5, 2013 at 11:45pm by iClarified Staff

Apple is reportedly testing an offline version of voice dictation for iOS, similar to what many Android phones have on the market today.

According to code fragments discovered in iOS 7 beta builds (but now iOS 6), Apple is internally testing voice dictation that does not require an Internet connection. Currently if a user wishes to use the voice-to-text function, the OS uploads their speech to cloud to convert it to text, then it is downloaded back to the phone. Since this requires an active Internet connection, it often was slow or not present at all depending on the speeds of the connection.

Future version of iOS could allow iDevices to convert the speech to text right on the device itself. Since no internet connection would be required, the conversion process would be much quicker.

Perhaps Apple would let users opt to use the offline version or have the OS determine which is the best option depending on connection speeds. Additional files are obviously required for offline dictation to occur, so those who do opt to use offline dictation would have less storage space.

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Apple Testing Offline Voice Dictation for iOS?

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AppleGuy299 - July 8, 2013 at 4:08am

Plz stop ur posts are very annoying

ipadguy - July 7, 2013 at 5:32pm

In the fall iOS 7 n Mac OSX Mavericks

AppleGuy299 - July 8, 2013 at 4:12am

Plz stop the all caps & iOS 7 is for devs only, if u were one then u wouldn't need to ask. Also, it's coming out in the fall if u paid attention to the WWDC!

NoGoodNick - July 6, 2013 at 2:47pm

This is a great idea. The dictation feature is problematic now as you can only speak a short sentence at a time, and then have to wait for the message to upload, get processed, and then download again, completely breaking your concentration. I've been using other tools for dictation instead of Siri just for this reason.

Riley - July 6, 2013 at 5:21am

It can already do this...I can make it speak highlighted text on my iPhone 4 with no internet connection. I have iOS 7 now, but it also worked in iOS 6.

Bernard - July 6, 2013 at 5:27am

Voice synthesis is the opposite of dictation. In the first case, the computer speaks aloud an already written text. In the second, the computer write a text that is spoken aloud by the user. Voice synthesis isn't new, as you report correctly. But dictation appeared only in Mountain Lion then it is extended in Mavericks. Of course you may had dictation on Mac for many years now, by using such applications as MacSpeech then Dragon Dictate.

Nuck Chorris - July 6, 2013 at 4:08am

If they haven't already, I forsee apple filing a patent for offline voice dictation..

iAmMe - July 6, 2013 at 1:31am

I think it would be an option like the one I found on my MacBook Pro's dictation and speech: Use Enhanced Dictation (allows offline use and continuous dictation with live feedback. Requires 785 MB download.)

Bernard - July 6, 2013 at 1:46am

I think you make reference to a new function of OS X Mavericks (10.9) that no so many users have already installed on their Mac. Actually, in OS X 10.8.4, the dictation function works as sending the recorded voice to Apple Servers.

iAmMe - July 6, 2013 at 2:57am

Oh, I see. You're right. I thought it was already with Mountain Lion. :D

paulMOGG - July 6, 2013 at 12:59am

I guess if android can do it then no reason why apple can't

Jgin12 - July 6, 2013 at 12:38am

It still amazes me how quickly the online dictation records our speech, uploads our speech, recognizes our voice as words, translates our voice into written word, and sends the data back to us as words on our screen. One of those things that is pretty amazing when you think about it.

No ma'am - July 6, 2013 at 12:14am

Well it's about time.